As culinary experiences have proliferated at wineries throughout the valley, Clif Family Winery’s Executive Chef Magnus Young believes their program is especially unique. “We offer both a casual and high-end experience,” he said, pointing to their elevated tasting room, their private tasting salon known as The Enoteca, and their popular fast-casual Bruschetteria food truck.
Clif Family Winery’s Executive Chef Magnus Young
Young was recently promoted to executive chef at Clif Family, where he oversees these various culinary experiences. The Bruschetteria Food Truck is a relaxed menu inspired by owners Kit and Gary’s cycling trips through Northern Italy. “Their good friends own a bruschetta restaurant in a small northern Italian town, and that became the inspiration for our menu,” said Young, adding that there is certainly an Italian influence with a California farm-to-table twist. “The Bruschetteria Food Truck allows us to offer farm-fresh and seasonal food bites to perfectly complement our wines and enhance our tasting experiences. It’s a natural extension of our organic farm.”
The foundation of the menu focuses on none other than bruschetta — toasted, crusty bread with rotating toppings like mixed assorted mushrooms with fontina cheese and a Porchetta seasoned with Farm rosemary, fennel, and garlic, topped with pickled red onion. There are also farm-fresh salads like the Firecracker, a mixed base of kale, Napa cabbage, and super greens, with Meyer lemon-miso dressing, pickled carrots, and Clif Family maple curry cashews and peanuts.
Thus far, Young says, the polenta tots have been their most popular dish — made from Clif Family Farm’s heirloom red flint corn and served alongside a helping of buttermilk ranch with an optional add-on of Tsar Nicoulai caviar. “I also love the seasonal dishes we are able to create using ingredients from the Farm,” said Young. This past summer, that included the use of the farm’s heirloom tomatoes and housemade stracciatella for the seasonal Pomodoro bruschetta.
Polenta Tots
In addition to the food truck, Young is thrilled about running their weekly Street Food Napa Valley menu on Wednesdays, an opportunity to spotlight global specialties and create unique, unexpected wine pairings with these foreign flavors. “I lean toward congruent pairing for our reds, matching the flavor profile and intensity with that of the dish. For our whites, I’m a fan of contrast pairings and I’ll use acid or fresh herbs to create a bridge,” said Young about his technique of matching a wine to a new dish.
One of his recently discovered complementary wine and food duos is a Caponata agnolotti and Clif Family Estate Zinfandel. “As far as Zinfandel’s go, it’s much softer and less spice-driven than some others in the Valley, so it doesn’t overwhelm the dish,” shared Young, noting the seasonal dish is served at the Cima Tasting Experience at the Enoteca. “The caponata, while predominantly plant-based, is quite savory and offers weight comparable to heavier, slow-cooked protein helping to bring forward some of those brambly fruit flavors in the wine.”
Perhaps the most unique aspect of Clif Family is that Young can source up to 85%-90% of the produce and eggs used throughout all menus from Clif Family’s CCOF-certified organic farm on Howell Mountain, inspiring him to consistently create new offerings at Clif Family. He said, “I like to think about what’s in season and how we can best showcase those ingredients without diluting them.”
